BEFORE ANY debate starts, we must remind ourselves that India has a tendency of corruption. India, though a democracy, has a history of reported corruption cases. While the Chief Justice of India, KG Balakrishnan, has demanded that PM manmohan singh amend the RTI Act to ‘protect’ the judiciary from ‘intrusive’ queries, what needs to be kept in mind is that the proposed amendments will totally defeat the purpose of an...

Having stitched together a climate deal at Copenhagen with a select group of countries, the government will have to do some explaining in Parliament on Tuesday on some provisions in the Copenhagen Accord, especially those relating to international verification of voluntary action taken by India on climate change. The government is expected to argue that agreeing to allow “international consultations and analysis” is in no way a matter of concern....

* A Rs 350 crore scam has surfaced in the Rajiv Gandhi National Creche Scheme * Three organisations are being investigated by the vigilance department of the women WCD ministry for mismanagement and for running creches only on paper * The scheme was for children of women in the unorganised sector * The organisations maintained fake audits and balancesheets signed by CAs Nothing, it would seem, is sacred for scamsters....

Referring to China in 1947, Nehru declared, “A new star has risen in the eastern horizon,” and some years later predicted, “If you peer into the future, the obvious fourth country in the world is India.” One of the countries he had in mind has disappeared, and he did not imagine that the emergence of India and China on the global stage would lead to mutual friction. The Chinese are...

After three days of deadlock, the United Nations climate talks here are moving again, propelled by a quickly approaching deadline, the prospect of 130 world leaders in the same city, and “sustained pressure” by major developing countries, including India. With less than 24 hours left before the end of the summit, negotiators are back to working on both the Kyoto Protocol and long-term action draft texts. In other encouraging signs for...